Mad Catz FightPad Review

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A controller designed specifically for Street Fighter IV. Does it give players a competitive edge?

By Scott Lowe

There are few more gratifying moments in gaming than after you complete a long, arduous single-player campaign with countless foes defeated and graphical glory being displayed in the form of end-credits. That is, of course, until you experience the feeling of bitch-slapping your friends all over the screen in a fighting game. Oh yes, like the feeling of scoring a perfect headshot in a first-person shooter title, landing a well-timed upper cut is like a virtual barbiturate. You can't help but feel a sudden jolt of adrenaline, followed by a brief bout of calm relaxation after effectively stomping out a competitor of either human or A.I. variety. But like any good competitive genre, fighting games come in a variety of forms. Some fighting games are for more casual players and require that players only mash the buttons blindly; others require the memorization of combos, finishing moves, and sheer, unadulterated fighting spirit.

Many passionate fighting game enthusiasts have come to love titles and franchises like Dead or Alive or Mortal Kombat, but one series is regarded as the granddaddy of all fighting games—Street Fighter. With a rich history of over 20 years of titles, Street Fighter is alive and kicking (pun intended) with its latest installment, Street Fighter IV. Set to release in February, Street Fighter IV is one of the most hotly anticipated fighting titles of the year. Naturally, as is the case with most legendary series, the forthcoming release of Street Fighter IV has caused a flood of Ryu-branded merchandising and accessories. While many companies are cashing in on the resurging interest in the series with t-shirts and lunch boxes, a few companies have designed products that gamers really care about: fighting controllers and sticks. Two companies secured official licenses from Capcom to create gaming accessories for Street Fighter IV. Hori received rights to create and distribute official Street Fighter products in Japan, while Mad Catz secured the license for North America.

Mad Catz has produced two premium-fighting sticks to launch concurrently with the game, as well as an optimized controller solution for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, known as the FightPad. The FightPad is designed for those who grew up after the downfall of the arcade cabinet, or simply have grown too accustomed to the conventional controller. In terms of form, the Mad Catz FightPad is comparable to the boomerang-like shape of a Sega Genesis controller. The FightStick foregoes the two-thumbstick configuration of current-gen controllers and goes back to the lone D-pad design of yesteryear. But Mad Catz didn't just strip the thumbsticks and leave a generic D-pad in their stead; they went out of their way to create a multipurpose D-pad solution. The FightPad's D-pad is much like the floating D-pad of the first-party Xbox 360 controller; however, it is vastly superior to it in a number of ways. For one, the FightPad D-pad is much larger than the Xbox 360's, which, after long, strenuous gaming sessions, is crucial for keeping pain and discomfort to a minimum. The other major improvement the FightPad makes to the floating D-pad design is in its fluidity.

While the Xbox 360's floating 8-way D-pad is notably rigid, the FightPad's directional movement is very smooth and loose. Right about now you must be thinking: "If the D-pad is loose, it must be terribly unresponsive during gameplay." Fortunately, there is nothing farther from the truth. The D-pad translates exceptional to in-game commands and performs much like a full-sized fight stick. Perhaps one of the coolest features of the FightPad is a switch mounted to the bottom of the controller, which can designate the function of the D-pad as either left stick, right stick, or simply D-pad. As a result, regardless of which fighting game they play, users will be able to quickly and effectively change the function of the FightPad's D-pad to better suit the game without having to enter in-game configuration menus.

Also like many fight sticks, the FightPad's buttons are arranged in two rows of three. For Xbox 360 the buttons are arranged with X, Y, and RB on the top row, and then A, B, and RT on the bottom, with LB and LT located on the shoulders. The PlayStation 3 version comes with Square, Triangle, and R1 on the top row, and X, Circle, and R2 on the bottom, and L2 and R2 on the shoulders. Overall, the buttons perform well, however, they are a little bit looser than we would have preferred. When the going got tough, we would have liked a little more resistance from the buttons to really let our tactile senses know that we were giving the controller all of our fury. Fortunately the FightPad has Turbo feature that compensates for the somewhat lackluster button resistance by doubling or tripling the punch. Turbo can be assigned to any button on the controller by simply holding the turbo button and tapping the desired button. The turbo is designated by a red LED located just to the right of the start button, which illuminates whenever one or more buttons have turbo engaged. When assigning turbo to buttons, the light blinks at two distinct speeds to indicate the turbo level of each button.

As far as physical build, the base and face of the FightPad is constructed from high-gloss plastic, while portions of the back and sides feature a softer, texturized material for added grip. The grips come in handy when the competition gets tough and perspiration would otherwise cause your fingers to slip. The upwards face of the controller comes emblazoned with official art for Street Fighter IV, licensed by Capcom. The quality of the art and the imprinting is exceptional, however, the plastic is a bit less than impressive. The controller itself is extremely light, which could be a positive or negative in terms of ergonomic preference, however, it has an adverse affect on the FightPad from a longevity standpoint. However, for a $39.99 investment, users can't rightly expect a controller to have an extensive lifespan. Perhaps the most curious fact about the FightPad is that for Xbox 360 version comes exclusively in a wired solution, while the PlayStation 3 version is wireless only. So, if you are an Xbox 360 gamer who likes to play without the constraints of wires, the FightPad might not be for you, although it does have roughly eight feet of wired legroom.

Overall, we were pretty impressed by the Mad Catz FightPad. It's an effective solution for those who aren't proficient enough with fighting sticks but still want to a good way to pummel their friends with a solid competitive edge.